MANAGERS and Coaching Association chairman wants to know what more Jambos manager could have been expected to do with club that is in 'total disarray'.

THERE is another tombstone in the Tynecastle managerial graveyard this morning and this one has John McGlynn’s name carved on it.

Alex Smith simply cannot believe it. As chairman of the country’s Managers and Coaching Association, it’s not
a surprise he should feel sympathy when one of his kind ends up six feet under.

But this time it’s different. The 73-year-old has been in football for 54 years and thought he had seen it all.

But events on and off the pitch have staggered him this season and the sacking of McGlynn by Hearts has left him angry and bewildered.

He knows McGlynn has watched most of the Hearts stars who won the Scottish Cup last term disappear in a wage-slashing exercise that couldn’t have been more brutal if Sweeney Todd had carried it out.

Three major experienced
players – captain Marius Zaliukas, Jamie Hamill and Danny Grainger – are out for the rest of the season and McGlynn has been forced to fill the gaps with a bunch of boys who probably don’t shave more than twice a
week.

Yet against that backdrop, Hearts have reached the League Cup Final and although their results have been poor since then – they’ve lost their last four SPL matches – they remain 15 points clear of bottom club Dundee.

Smith wants to know what more McGlynn could have done to keep his job in the face of such odds.

And although he accepts there will be
no shortage of managers wanting to boss Hearts, he doesn’t see how it can be done – unless the club ditch any pretence of non-interference from above and tell the next incumbent to coach but not pick the team.

Alex Smith

Smith said: “Managing this club is mission impossible. A club the size of Hearts doesn’t like to see their name second bottom of the league. But the conditions within that job were frightening.

“You are not managing a football club there – you are managing an institution and it is in total disarray.

“It has no funding to keep senior players, never mind to bring in the quality signings required to maintain the levels Hearts fans demand.

“You are left with bringing in outstanding young kids who they had in their Under-18 and 19 teams. But to throw six or seven of them into the first team without enough experience to stabilise them is very difficult to do in the Premier League.

“Despite the demands of the job, John has got them to a major cup final in two weeks’ time. It’s
unbelievable that they have taken this decision.

“There will be guys desperate to get the job because they see Hearts as a very attractive name to have on their CV. And even if they only last five months, everybody will know the
conditions they’ve been working under so getting the sack won’t reflect
too badly on them.

“Steven Pressley fits that club like a glove but he couldn’t possibly go there and work under the current circumstances.

“He
is made for that job. He’s got three-and-a-half years experience now working alongside me at Falkirk. But I don’t think he’d do it under the current constraints.

“Maybe Hearts should just appoint a coach who’ll do all the training but take instructions from elsewhere.

“You won’t get an experienced manager working under those circumstances. They’ve had
experienced managers in there and they’ve found it difficult to handle that way of working.

“But
people who do work like that are often found abroad. They have a different culture to us in terms of how to run a club, so maybe they should bring one in and get on with it.

“I would not last 15 minutes in that situation if somebody told me, ‘He’s not travelling today or this one is
to come off for that one at a certain time.’

“You have to be able to stand or fall on your decision-making, your own personality.”

Smith
fears the current crop of Hearts kids such as Jason Holt, Jamie Walker,
Callum Paterson, Kevin McHattie and Callum Tapping may suffer in the long term if stability is not restored to
Tynecastle. He added: “Hearts are a huge club with a massive support and big staff.

“Yet all they have on the pitch is young players. Some of them are outstanding and this isn’t their fault.

“Those lads could play for Scotland if they are given the right guidance. The fact they are in Hearts’ first
team at their age is fantastic.

“Young
players need to have the right experience around them to keep them right when the game is going against them. Kids will lose their confidence quickly if their team is losing regularly.

“When you are playing for a big club with a huge demand for success in the capital city, it is big pressure.

“What is going on at Hearts will be detrimental to their careers if this continues.

“If it were to suddenly stop and Hearts got funds from somewhere to bring in the real kind of experience,
then what they are going through just now will stand them in great stead.

“When I was at Aberdeen, we introduced
to players like Stephen Wright, Eoin Jess and Scott Booth but we had Alex McLeish, Willie Miller, Jim Bett and Stewart McKimmie to help them through games and play a major part in their development.

“But
how do you term success? Is it getting to a major cup final? Is it developing young players? Or is success only celebrated when your team wins the league?

“McGlynn had been doing exactly what was required at Hearts. They’ve got no money, so they need a manager who will play the young lads and John has done that.